Mommiedom

Let's be honest that finding a catchy title for your blog is hard.  I thought long and hard with the name for mine and one day it hit me- Mommiedom.

Why because as a Mom we...

1. Rule our little kingdom of mini people.

2. We sometimes have to rule with an iron fist while sometimes a gentle touch.

3. Sometimes we feel like the evil queen and sometimes we feel like Snow and Cindy as we clean and clean.

For me it is all about finding the fun, laughter and sometimes the brutal honesty of what it is like to be a Mom in this day and age.

People think I got it all together and most times, I am failing but I try to look decent while doing it. 

I yell to much, my kids eat more junk they I would like, I am more jugdy than I should be and I know my kids ARE far from perfect.

There are lots of things I would like to change but there are lots of things that work for us. 

I give it my all and a lot of the time the return is very little which is being a Mom!

I wish sometimes it was totally different and than their are times I love it and won't change it for the world!

That's what my Mommiedom is all about!

Every once in a great while I look to see what my most pinned pin is and when it hit 200 remind I was so excited.

Honestly I haven't looked in ages but noticed that it was just pinned again so I went to see what it was up to. I was half expecting it to maybe like 500 but it was over 2000 times.

2000 times this pin here.

has been re pinned and saved to others boards.

It was one of the simplest and easy crafts to do. It was a test run for my Pinterest parties that we have a few times a year!

So take a look at my super simple craft pin and if you are interested in the actual post, you can view it here.

The post alone also has over 2500 views now I need to get all my posts that many! 

This amazes me so much and thanks for stopping by!

The kids and I are staying with my parents for July and I have to bunk with the 7 year old which has been wonderful. I actually need to laugh about it some because most nights I get okay sleep but last night was rough. Hardly any sleep, horrible headache and listening to the hamster on his wheel (which is"suppose" to be a quiet one) for hours on end. 

I figured we all need a laugh at how our kids are when we have to share a bed. So I am demonstrating in stick figures (be impressed with my awesome drawings).

My hair is a hot mess most of the time. I have more gray than I would like and yes I dye it. Currently it is pretty dark (my 11 year old doesn't like it and thinks it it to dark). I have been thinking of a more fun color but the kids tell me that I am to old (I am a few months from 40) but I keep thinking why not because I am still young. 

Today I have to go to a shower with my Mom so I figured I needed to do more than a pony tail for that so I started to flat iron my hair. This is the second time in a week I have done it and like before that was I actually don't remember. I was for a long time a daily flat ironer. 

I was chuckling as I flat ironed my hair because I finished one side of head and noticed what a major difference the flat iron makes. How often do you get a before and after in one picture. 

Cleaning gives me a Zen feeling. When I complete the house and look around, I have peace inside which lasts about 2 seconds until one of my kids runs through to make a mess. 

I admit, I clean early in the morning usually before they are up in the summer and after they leave for school the rest of the year. This gives me some time to have it look nice. The nice clean smell, the shine of the appliances and swept floors are HEAVEN.

I also know that I can't be crazy and decided that a a schedule was needed to keep the house clean and myself sane. 

So, I started off breaking down areas of my house and working on those each day. Something different every day and I makes the house feel clean through out the week. 

I also make sure that the kitchen is clean before bed (dishwasher loaded, counters wiped and sweep up). Beds are also made every day to. 

It feels good to wake up in the morning and not have a sink full of dishes though on occasion it doesn't happen. 

I also work at doing one to two loads of laundry per day and always run the dishwasher daily. 

Both of these help wth keeping the house pretty clean though putting dishes and laundry away really is a chore that I MAJORLY dislike but it does feel good when it is done.

So I created a fun checklist to help myself out to clean the house wth daily and weekly chores. 

 I have already admitted that I like trends in the craft world. I may not be a clothing or makeup trend person but ways to be creative, I am all about!

Planners are something I start, use for a few months and than stop using. I have had all sorts of ones but than I think well my computer, phone, and laptop are all connected with my calendar so I fall away from it. 

Though I am a sucker for cute stuff and when I saw last November the adorable MAMBI Happy Planner which was like 60 percent off, I thought why not try it. I have used that thing all the time and the reason I love it so much is because you can decorate it to your own personality. All of my stamps, scrapbook, and stickers that I own can be used to make it mine.

Here are my two planners!

I started off slow with it and just did some decorating here and there. Than I joined a few Facebook groups that are Happy Planner centric and oh my were they crazy but in the good way. 

There are sticker packs and freebies you can find on Pinterest. Phrases to motivate you and unlimited uses for washing tape which I used some but now ALL THE TIME.

I chuckled when I would see people with more than one and guess what I have two. A regular one that tracks the calendar and a mini which is my daily journal to track all the things in life. I love adding in my own pages of things like my bulletin journaling (more on that another day) as well as fun coloring pages. 

These planners reflect one perfectly and that was the one thing I always found that planners were lacking. I love tracking things in fun ways and different colors. I have the fall all laid out with the kids each having a place in the planner. I also purchased a label maker which I use for my planner and about anything I want to label. Stay clear of me unless you want it labeled!

Friends are getting in on it and my own mother has multiple ones as well. She is using stickers and loving the personalizing of it. I use it for way to remember the year that was. I track the good and the bad in them. I love that I can add pictures to it from my Kodak instant camera of our memories (see cute pic f my kiddo on my dashboard). 

I love that I finally found a planner that I have used more than a few months. It goes about every where with me and I have no shame in pulling that huge thing out to take notes, see what is going on etc. 

I love how this planner fits in how I love to craft and express myself.


Free planner Printable (for personal use only)

I created this and you can feel free to print up and use for a weekly layout. I used it a few weeks ago in one of my June layouts!

If you would lie your own Happy Planner, Amazon has great deals always and this is
 a nice starter kit! (Affiliated link)

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment bout how you love your MAMBI planner!

One of my favorite things is Bitmoji, which is creating your own personal emoji. I just love how custom you can make it. I love sending people texts with my own look and I think my Bitmoji looks a lot like me. 

My kids travel really well and our actually seasoned road trippers because with the cost of flying we can all get in the car, visit extra places and still some in way under than 4 airline tickets. Plus we go for extended periods so it is nice to be able to haul more stuff and have our own vehicle. 

So with all this traveling, I have found some wonderful things each and every time to make it so much easier on everyone including me because honestly if Mom is happy than everyone else is happy as well and if Mom isn't happy well we all know what that can be like ;).

Here are some of favorite tips for traveling:

1.  Have a dedicated box of entertainment like crayons, makers and things to color. My kids LOVE all that kind of stuff. 

2. Have each kid have their own car bag/backpack. These are things they want to come with and give comfort. My kids are both so different. My daughter packs it to the brim while my son just takes the basics like his favorite stuffed animals and a few books. 

3. Tablets, computers and DVD players. Honestly the tablets make it easy to be all in one. My kids didn't even bring any movies this time for the drive. They played games, and read mostly on their devices. 

4. Snacks, lots of snacks. I hate stopping and buying snacks at the gas station because every time is like 10 bucks for nothing. So we went to the dollar store and for 20 bucks got twenty different kinds of snacks. Everyone was happy to have their favs right there in a bag. My kids loved it and we will always be doing this but sunflower seeds are off the list now forever- need I say more.

5. Pack lunches because I am all about going as far as we can and stopping for greasy food isn't something I like to do for multiple days. Between the snacks and packed lunch we were good (this also includes drinks). 

6. Hard surfaces for kids. I have gotten all sorts of ones for the kids like the trays, and binders but the best yet was the $1 cookie sheet from the dollar store. It has so many uses like drawing space, lego building (yes my son for hours and hours on our trip built legos) and it is magnetic so that works as well. Best idea yet for that.

I love the Kindle for exactly that and they are a reasonably priced one to.
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7.  Charging station and enough cables for phones, tablets and computers. I created a cute pouch to store my stuff in for easy access so when a cable is needed, it was there. I also made sure to get stuff back. So far we are only missing a set of headphones (of course mine that I borrowed to someone). I will find them I am sure at some point unless they fell out somewhere which has happened. 

8. Charged phones for GPS and finding things. Without a good phone with GPS, we would be lost. I love just typing the stuff in to find plus it is a great way to update people about progress. My hubs like to use a find me app to help track our driving progress. Though it is is creepy to get texts from them welcoming us to the states as we hit them. 

9. Patience and lots of it. Things happen that are out of your control. You may turn the wrong way (I tend to do that more than I like to admit). I got turned around one time that costs us like thirty minutes. I was in tears but everyone else was laughing on our adventure. So just relax and enjoy the ride. 

10. Have comfy clothes to wear. Leggings and yoga pants are a must. Nothing with buttons or zippers because they can jab plus it is so much faster to go potty. Also wear layers because outside might be hot but with the air con, we get cold. I wear a sweater most of the time. 

11. Have pillows and blankets because without a doubt you will doze off at some point (just not while driving). I also include in my stash a eye mask to help it get dark. I also like the neck roll as well for trips. It actually gets fought over when I am not using it. 

12. Have fun with the trip. The drive can be ling and boring so find ways to change it up. Sometimes we have long family talks about the weirdest things while on our trips and other times we go for hours not talking at all. 

Every year the kids and I head up to visit my parents up in Wisconsin. Weather is so much nicer there in July than Texas (think our fall weather). Low humidity and bright blue skies with highs of like 80 most days. So we hope in the car and travel up and we have now decided it is fun to stop on the way up to see America. This year we decided (okay I was ganged up honestly) to go see Branson.

The hubby had been there like 30 years ago and I have never been. I have always wanted to see it and it was about a hour really out of our way. So we headed out on Monday to start the ten hour drive to Branson. We got into Branson about 5ish because we made sandwiches in the car and stopped only a short time for potty and gas breaks.

Branson is really a gem in the middle of the Ozark's.  It is a hilly and green area with pockets of fun scattered through the area. Everything close by but traffic is busy with really only one main drag (on the our second day, we figured out side roads were much better).

Our first day night there was just dinner and listening to the never ending firework display by our motel. The next morning, we woke up to rain and though well we will make the best of it but it cleared for most of the day.

The first thing we did was something we stumbled upon, the Celebrity Car Museum. My hubby loves this kind of stuff and it was a fun museum though not cheap (though not much is cheap there).  We looked at all the fun cars around. We saw it only because Ecto-1 was sitting out front and one of the kids screamed GHOSTBUSTERS!

I just love how happy this new day file is and I am planning on printing it up to add to my planner and scrapbook pages. It would also be supper cute to add to a frame. 

My final fun one is a 4th of July hand lettering project. I added color and the app that I use has features to add stars as well as color. 

If I used this for a party, I can always just label which one is which. So after it gets mixed up and please be super careful because it is really hot.  We let the syrup cool for most of the afternoon in the fridge and it needs to be refrigerated when not using.  

So after dinner and showers, we went to work making sno cones. The kids loved it and just a small amount of ice made a huge mound of ice.